Monday, April 12, 2010

Good Coffee/Bad Coffee

I happened to be in Jakobsberg Centrum last week and in need of coffee and a quick bite to eat. A little stressed for time we ended up in Wayne's Coffee. Wayne's is normally somewhere you can trust for a bog standard caffeine fix. I thought..

As it was, we'd already tried the 7-Eleven next door, only to find it wasn't a 7-Eleven any more and didn't sell anything close to resembling a sandwich.

I've been to the Wayne's on Götgatan a few times and never had any problems there so naively assumed we'd be ok with Jakan's version. Wrong!

First off, we go inside to find a woman behind the counter on the phone, chatting away to a mate about something trivial. There is another guy wandering around behind the counter looking lost. Jen decides she wants a cheese roll that they have in a basket on the counter and a latte. Easy enough, I tell her I'll get it and she heads back to the car.

I stand there for a couple of minutes whilst the lady on the phone continues to chat away. Lost guy finally approaches me and takes my order. At least, he takes my money. I order two lattes and a cream cheese bagel from the trusted Wayne's menu. The guy then mumbles something to me about not being able to make the bagels and points to Phone Lady. I guess she's going to take care of it. The guy goes back around the counter and sits down with a friend, who is happily munching away on a sandwich.

Ok...what the fuck is going on here?

Eventually the phone lady hangs up and comes over to me. She shouts over to the Lost Guy, asking him what I'd ordered. I stand there, feeling invisible whilst the two break into argument around me. She asks him why he hadn't made my bagel to which he replies “I don't know how you do the bagels...” Jesus Christ...how do these people get jobs? There are educated people here in this country, who have fled from their war torn homelands, who can't even get cleaning jobs here in Sweden, and I'm faced with this pair of turds. They should be forced to give their jobs to the far more deserving...

Anyway, the woman eventually asks me what I want on my bagel, to which I repeat to her, cream fucking cheese. She mopes off and goes to work on my bagel.. “Just cream cheese?” I don't get it... On the menu, under the bagel section, it clearly states Cream Cheese Bagel. I tell her I want that bagel on the menu. “Do you want any salad on it?” “Yeah I want salad!” The fucking thing costs 40 kronors, of course I want salad on it.

She farts around for about another five minutes until she eventually places a cardboard box in front of me, looking at me like I've just farted in her kids face. Thanks. She then goes to start serving some other girl behind me when I'm forced to butt in and ask where my two lattes are. Cue another argument with the other useless arse of a man who took my order. She asks him why he couldn't have at least made my lattes for me, to which he replies, “I don't know how to make the lattes.” It's embarrassing by this point.

The woman grumpily makes my coffee's, hands them to me, I run from there as quickly as I can , back to the car where Jen is waiting, looking somewhat amused/confused..

I get in the car, open my cardboard box only to find yet more disappointment. What I have before me is not a Cream Cheese Bagel. It's a fucking Cream Cheese Bagel Kit! Two pieces of bagel bread, cut in half, a tub of cream cheese and a bunch of salad thrown on the side. I have to make the fucking thing myself. “I don't know how to make the lattes...” Seriously?

Record of the Week

Lifewreck - S/T

Podcast

Dagens Ord

Flax - A Swedish word for luck.

Hello...

This is a blog about life playing in a hardcore band...

...and some other stuff.

I started playing in bands when I was 14. I quit school when I was 18, around the same time I formed Raging Speedhorn. We played our first show in our home town, Corby, England in August 99 and our final show in Yamaguchi, Japan in November 08.

During that time I toured the world, moved to Stockholm, Sweden, got married and got a dog. And then we got a daughter.

These days I play in Victims, Diagnosis? Bastard! and Battle of Santiago. I also mess around with another couple of bands.

I managed a "hip" little bar on Södermalm for a few years but turns out that's a youth's game and I'm not that young anymore... So now I'm back in school, trying my best to make something of myself. Again.

The gaps in my schedule are filled working at a homeless shelter which is one of the best jobs I've ever had.

I spend most of my money on records and my free time going to gigs, drinking caffiene, watching football and walking my dog.